Group Wants To Oust Yard Union

Grievance Panel Changes Protested

NEWPORT NEWS — After 17 years as active Steelworkers, a group of laborers at Newport News Shipbuilding is threatening to try to oust the union, saying it fails to represent the workers.

The group, which claims it can gather the thousands of supporters needed to decertify Local 8888, could pose the first challenge to the United Steelworkers of America since it unseated the Peninsula Shipbuilders Association in 1978.

Members of the coalition say they tried to work with the current union leadership, which they say repeatedly ignored their concerns, before looking for another bargaining agent.

"This union has gotten to the point where they don't care about what the members need," said representative Jeff Thompson.

Most recently, they say, the issue is the union's plan to halve the grievance committee, which handles workers' complaints against the yard. The change was included in the 50-month contract that workers approved nearly 4-to-1 last month.

New elections for the posts are scheduled for April 11 and 12.

"The members don't know right now the meaning of the decreased representation," said representative Arnold Outlaw.

The group, a collection of about 20 committee members who now face re-election, say they already have a hard time investigating the volume of complaints they receive and question whether a smaller committee can serve members.

In addition, each was elected last April to three-year terms and say the union shouldn't be able to reduce the size of the committee until their terms expire.

So despite the fact that they can't file their petition to decertify the union with the National Labor Relations Board until 1997, they say they will begin gathering the estimated 3,600 signatures needed.

"We want the international to know how serious we are," said Woodrow Wilson, union representative and former vice president. "The people that I represent are my people. If we're not in there to supply some relief to these people, then the shipyard will be a terrible place to work."

The group, all of whom supported former local President Raymond Coppedge in the last election, and current President Thomas Crudup now stand at opposite ends of a battle over whether the election for the new committee is legal.

At a membership meeting earlier this month, union members voted against spending the $14,000 necessary to hire 20 people to run the polls, said representative Gregory Woods.

"This is supposed to be a democracy," Woods said.

However, Crudup later determined that the vote was moot. He said the labor pact, which members approved in February, required that the committee have "no more than 15 members," allowing him to spend the money on the election.

The union currently spends more than half its monthly budget, which Crudup declined to release, handling grievances. Much of that goes to pay the committee's salaries, whose grievance caseload determines how much time they spend working at the union hall.

Cuts in the work force at the yard have translated into fewer dues-paying union members, forcing the union to commit more and more of its dues to the committee, Crudup said.

In 1985 the yard employed about 30,000 people. Today, that number is down to 19,000, and yard executives have said they expect to continue cutting jobs until the work force falls to between 14,000 and 15,000 next year.

As a result, he said, the union needs to cut costs if it expects to continue to make ends meet.

With fewer members, it seems there would be fewer complaints to investigate. But the representatives say that isn't the case. In fact, they say they've seen an increase in calls.

"Discipline is still being administered at the same rate," Ward said. "We want to give the union back to the people."

Crudup said he can appoint assistants to help committee members with their caseload.

Members cannot petition the NLRB to schedule the election until the end of 1997, regional director Lewis D'Amico said. The vote can only take place three years after a contract is signed.

Members of the group say it could take them almost that long to organize for the challenge. After all, they say, the Steelworkers spent more than a year gathering support before they made a formal bid to replace the PSA.

To petition, membership in the union would have to dip below 50 percent of those eligible and the challengers would have to prove that at least 30 percent support them, D'Amico said.

Members of the group have already spoken with several other unions, however have not yet selected one they'll like to represent them.

"This is a large local," said representative Vernon Ward. "I'm sure a lot of other unions would want to get in here."

The Newport News union is the Steelworkers' largest local in the United States, international spokesman Howard Scott said.

However, finding another union may not be easy since AFL-CIO-affiliated unions have a pact not to raid one another, Thompson said.

UNITED STEELWORKERS LOCAL 8888

Some members of the United Steelworkers of America Local 8888, Newport News Shipbuilding's largest bargaining unit, are threatening to break away from the international and petition to replace it with another union. Some facts about Local 8888:

* Members: 6,900

* History: Unseated Peninsula Shipbuilders Association in January 1978. Struck yard from January until April 1979 when it refused to recognize the Steelworkers as the bargaining agent. Signed first contract with the yard in March 1980.